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Accepted Paper:

Holy side hustles: negotiating the past and engaging the present in South African evangelicalism  
Ibrahim Abraham (Australian National University)

Paper short abstract:

Drawing on ethnographic research on South African Christianity, this paper explores how part-time "side hustle" evangelical ministries achieve relevance by negotiating the present and past, notably African cultural tradition, (re)emerging global black culture, and contemporary politics.

Paper long abstract:

Since colonization, South African Christianity has worked through a vast array of contradictory local and global cultural influences. Since the 1990s, South Africa has seen an increase in evangelical, often Pentecostal, churches and ministries. The key site of evangelical growth has been the middle class; both the ambitious and emerging black middle class, and the established but sometimes anxious white middle class. In both cases, evangelicalism offers opportunities for creating new networks and new identities in globalizing cultures.

Drawing on ethnographic research in Cape Town, this paper explores part-time "side hustle" evangelical ministries focused at the emerging middle class. Presented in South African business and self-help discourse as passionate entrepreneurial projects, "side hustles" are constructed as self-technologies for personal growth as much as money-making opportunities. Accordingly, side hustle ministries emerge out of the professional interests or leisure pursuits of individuals who consider their individual success to create opportunities and obligations for pastoral or evangelistic outreach.

In seeking contemporary relevance, side hustle ministries are at the forefront of South African Christianity's engagement with local and global culture. The tension between Western-influenced evangelical Christianity and local traditional culture and religious practices is well established, and this paper will focus on how side hustle ministries engage with a (re)emerging culture of global blackness, articulating African identities grounded in music, sport, and other forms popular culture, rather than ethnic specificity. In keeping with political trends in South Africa, a new openness to progressive and populist politics is also evident in these ministries.

Panel P21
African entrepreneurs: fashioning the future and negotiating the past
  Session 1 Friday 19 July, 2019, -